The strike's other issues
Editorial
In addition to the complex issue of adequate pay for civil servants, the 55-day public service strike dredged up other stark challenges for society to address. One of these was the opportunistic hijacking of the protests by criminals and the descent into lawlessness by some of those on the picket lines. The recent history of this country has shown that whenever a crisis engulfs society, criminals - either co-opted into the struggle as additional pressure or taking advantage of the preoccupation of the police - become emboldened. At the height of the strike, this scourge manifested itself in rock throwing attacks on the commercial section of Georgetown, countless bomb scares at schools and government installations, assaults on civilians and other outrages such as the firing of a rocket grenade on Reeaz Trading, the invasion of the Georgetown Hospital and the beating up of a doctor and the attempt to set ablaze a Regent Street gas station. The pattern was well established in the run up to and aftermath of the 1992 elections, the disturbances in December 1997 that spilled over into 1998 and then six months later and more recently with the deadlock over the political dialogue and then the public service strike. These spasmodic declines into lawlessness leave ordinary citizens at the mercy of events they have little control over. Those who should be in control - the Home Affairs Ministry and the police - often seem to be clueless about effective measures to thwart the perpetrators. The police force has had many opportunities in recent years to learn to cope with these eruptions of crime but the recent strike did not provide any evidence that much had been learnt. Too many of those who openly flaunted the laws during the public service strike escaped without being taken before the courts. Too many of the crimes committed around the strike remained unsolved with many questions lingering about where weapons such as rocket launchers are coming from and why the police are unable to intercept these shipments. A demonstrable improvement must be made by the police force in anticipating and squelching criminal acts that mushroom around national crises. More than that, the police have to determinedly investigate crimes like the rocket attack on Reeaz Trading and effectively prosecute those who are culpable. Another dangerous development in the strike and mirrored in the political disturbances of 1997 and 1998 was the attacks by supporters of the public servants and hooligans on mainly Indo-Guyanese at municipal markets and car parks in the city. Following the infamous assaults of January 1998 on mainly Indo-Guyanese these acts of violence have seemingly become a statement by predominantly Afro-Guyanese groups against the government and its perceived supporters. These incidents can only further aggravate race relations in what has been a very tense period since December 1997. And far from breaking the mould of ethnic voting these attacks on Indo-Guyanese will undoubtedly have the effect of consolidating votes for parties or groups that appear to represent the interests and aspirations of Indo-Guyanese. Organisations like the GPSU and the PNC must recognise the danger posed to societal harmony by agitation that leads to wanton and sustained attacks on specific groups in the country. They must do their utmost to prevent this. It is also the burden of the police to assure those who have borne the brunt of these attacks that protection will be given to them in the future. Municipal markets and mini-bus parks have been the main targets during times of unrest and the police force has to devise a plan to ensure the safety of its users. While the strike might have started out solely as a fight for a living wage it has had other repercussions which demand equally substantial responses. 
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